Magic City Discovery Center offers education, fun | News, Sports, Jobs

About 116,000 guests from 37 states walked through the Discovery Center’s doors in its first year of operation, including 3,731 field trips from schools across North Dakota and from other states in the region, such as Montana. The center also puts on Discovery on the Go events in the community, reaching a further 6,070 attendees in the last year. Overall, MCDC Director of Operations Sara Brentrup said the first year has been “incredible.”

“We try to cover a wider range of ages, so there’s activities here for the youngest all the way up to teenagers and nobody gets bored. Even adults come and have fun. We have a lot of adult groups that come through – special needs adults, even retired people. Everyone loves the Discovery Center,” Brentrup said.

MCDC can accommodate around 200 visitors at a time without incurring wait times, and those looking to stop by are encouraged to preorder admission ahead of time. Visitors with accessibility concerns are able to virtually preview the exhibits online, and the Discovery Center is always open to feedback so staff can ensure the spaces are as inclusive as possible.

Attendees can access 120 hands-on STEAM exhibits, providing children the freedom to explore concepts in science, technology, engineering, art and math.

uentin Guitian, left, Jackson McKnight, Madison McKnight and Avacyn Guitian gather in the treehouse during Sensory-Friendly Night at the Magic City Discovery Center on March 19.

“We just recently got a new exhibit for our birthday. We took away one exhibit we had and replaced it with a cabin building set. It’s been fun to watch the kids constructing cabins. We have a miniature version of it so they can make a prototype before they make it large scale. They look like Lincoln Logs. It’s a good throwback for the adults too,” Brentrup said.

Twelve unique galleries are available for youngsters to engage with, including a Light Lab, Water Flow gallery, sound and music-making devices, an art Creativity Studio and a 37-foot interactive Magic Climber, which terminates at a B-52 at the top, giving children a 360-degree view of the Magic City.

MCDC is also home to one of 11 Smithsonian SPARK!LABS in the world. The lab offers rotating self-driven projects involving 3D printing, vehicle building, electric circuits, musical ramps and other cross-discipline opportunities.

“The activities in those rotate every couple weeks, so we try to keep things new. We’re doing some long-range planning starting in a year or two to update or replace some of the exhibits we have to keep things fresh,” Brentrup said.

MCDC is also available for birthday parties and offers camp experiences in the summer.

The Magic City Discovery Center, shown in this photo by Amdak Productions after its official opening in May 2023, had around 116,000 visitors pass through its doors in its first year of operation.

“Everything is STEAM-related. We have science activities and art activities. We just want to immerse them in everything. We don’t do work sheets. Everything is hands-on and engaging,” Brentrup said.

The Discovery Center has added additional events to the calendar to draw in teenagers and adults, organizing date nights with food trucks, and is preparing to open up its 3,000-square-foot rooftop venue space for bookings. MDCD closes the year with a New Year’s Eve event, attended by 925 people in 2023.